True Blood

8102011

Finally, I got around to watching True Blood. I am not a big fan of the modern take on Vampires. Rather than being sexy and metro, I prefer them to be cool and scary and lurking in castles somewhere in Romania. However, I’d heard pretty good things about it, so I decided to give it a go.

Bill, Sookie & Eric

Season one was the best, with the introduction of the main characters and the vampire mythology within the True Blood universe. The story involves the ‘reveal’ of the vampire race, following the invention of a blood substitute dubbed “Tru Blood.” Since the vampires no longer require the drinking of human blood, they decide to come out of the coffin and live among us. The series starts in a small bar in Louisiana, the employer of Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a young girl working as a waitress. In comes vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), and the two connect instantly.

Sookie has the involuntary power to read the thoughts of others, and is fascinated by the fact she cannot read the mind of “Vampire Bill.” Bill is a decent vampire who doesn’t feed on humans, and he and Sookie begin a tenuous relationship with one another.

Other main characters include Sookie’s brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten), her friend Tara (Rutina Wesley) and the various bar staff Sookie works with. Later, another vampire named Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) competes with Bill for Sookie’s love.

Over the four seasons the show develops the relationships between the characters and mythology, but I found that by the end of the fourth season there was just a little too much going on with each person. It seemed to me that when they started to introduce more mythical creatures, the show began to lose it’s focus and direction.

The culture and workings of the Vampires was interesting and well layered, with local rulers and ‘kings’ governed by various higher tiers of vampire power. Later introductions of werewolves, witches and ghosts just watered down the power of the vampires and once season three had passed, it seemed as though every character had some tie to some weird power they were keeping secret. By the beginning of season four I really wanted to fast forward the parts with Tara’s cousin Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis). His story arc just became more and more ridiculous with him being possesses by any random ghost that happened to be floating through the area.

My favourite character is Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), a teenage girl bitten by Bill Compton as punishment for his crimes. She has trouble controlling her desires and has some of the funniest parts in the series. I started out enjoying the Tara sections, but later she got a little whiny and annoying. Sookie is pretty constant throughout all four seasons.

One character I instantly hated was the ‘big bad’ for season four. Marnie Stonebrook (Fiona Shaw) is a witch who is out to kill all vampires. The actress playing her is just so damned annoying I almost stopped watching. I can’t even really explain why, I just really hate her.

I’ve never seen Twilight or any of the other new vampire shows, so I can’t really compare to those. I guess if you’re looking to watch True Blood, I can say the first two seasons are a decent way to pass the time. If you’re still enjoying it mid season three, then you’ll probably enjoy the rest. If you’re getting bored around that stage, skip season four entirely and you won’t be missing a thing.